Pippi Longstocking

Cute, not Colonialist

Pippi Longstocking, of the fire-engine red braids that stick straight out of her head, stands for fun, freedom and feminism. She dispatches a pompous grown-up who wants to tease her, spank her and buy her house, fends off a troublesome teacher who tries to make her go to school along with tiresome policemen who think she ought to live in an orphanage. She’s inspiringly self-sufficient and independent, maintaining herself, her horse and her monkey; she has a suitcase of gold coins. Always entertaining the conventional kids next door, Tommy and Annika, Pippi wins over their mother, who lets her take the kids to the South Sea islands. There, Pippi’s dad is “our fat white chief,” who, when ruling, dresses in “royal regalia,” consisting of a crown, a straw skirt and a necklace of shark’s teeth.

A detail apparently inspiring complaints about colonial racist stereotypes , which go back to 2011. One Dr. Eske Wollrad, of Germany's Federal Association of Evangelical Women, complains about all three books, but especially about a scene in Pippi in the South Seas, in which, she claims,

"the black children throw themselves into the sand in front of the white children in the book." She added, “When reading the book to my nephew, who is black, I simply left that passage out."

Indeed, the Kurrekurredutt children, impressed with Pippi’s ability to lift her horse and toss her father into the air (later, she even wrestles a shark!) “throw themselves down on their knees before her, touching the ground with their foreheads.” Her father is king, and the custom remains to kneel to the king and his relatives and friends. The illustration—see page 75—indeed shows black children kneeling before the king and Pippi.

It shows Pippi’s kneeling, too, nose-to-nose with one of the Kurrekurredutt children, she asks whether they’re playing hunting-for-treasure and says there’s nothing on the ground, “so you might as well get up.” Did Dr. Wollrad forget that part?

Does Pippi command her subjects to kneel? She does not. Her behavior shows her impatience with the custom. She’d rather play. The Kurrekurredutt children want to know about the “children in the northern land,” and Pippi provides outrageous answers about how much northern children love multiplication, which she calls “pluttification.”

If you’re thinking those grass skirts are stereotypes, do remember that people really wore them, still wear them, that they’re traditional costumes, just as Dirndls and Lederhosen are traditional costumes in Bavaria. If you’re thinking, “there’s a pile of stereotypes about white northern children as well as black South Sea island children,” why not consider the kinds of things children really say to each other? Isn’t the whole chapter just fun, just getting to know you? The point being: children teach each other their version of the world. And enjoy doing so, until adults interfere.

Poor Frau Dr. Wollrad’s nephew, deprived of that scene because he’s black. Now that’s discrimination. What did his aunt think was going to happen? Did she think the kid would feel like he had to kneel in front of white people? Kneel in general? Take the knee?

We’ll never know, because she didn’t read the kid the passage, so the kid didn’t get to comment on it or ask questions. If he’d had the chance, she might have pointed out that kneeling in front of kings and royals is a very old story that has existed in virtually every culture since human beings evolved from apes—and you’ll find the practice among apes, too.

Frau Dr. Wollrad insists, "The question to ask yourself is whether you could read a certain passage out loud to a black child without stopping or stumbling." If she’s stopping or stumbling, that’s her problem. Anyone reading a child a book should never make assumptions about what the child may feel or think. The only reliable index is the adult’s feelings: if the mother is unhappy or nervous with the content or with her life, the child may well absorb the feeling.

Dr. Wollrad missed a chance to see what her nephew thought. For all she knew, he might have said, “Look at Pippi kneeling!”

I’m happy to say Astrid Lindgren's daughter Karin Nyman dismissed the charges of racism and colonialism.

Moms, Dads, grandparents: enjoy reading the Pippi series with your little ones.